Man of steel

Ads call for green jobs to revitalize steel towns 2

Environmental Defense Action Fund, United Steelworkers, and the Blue Green Alliance unveiled new television ads this week in support of a cap on carbon and a comprehensive green energy and jobs bill.

The ads focus on the disappearance of steel-industry jobs from Braddock, Pa., and the mayor’s hope that new green jobs will replace them. The ads are part of a campaign with its own website: The Cap Solution.

“Towns like Braddock need Congress to cap carbon so we can get to work,” says John Fetterman, Braddock’s young, tattooed, Harvard-educated mayor.  “It takes 250 tons of steel to make a wind turbine, and we’re ready to make as many as we can. We’ve lost 250,000 jobs in Monongahela Valley, and I want to bring them back for the next big business built on steel.”

The ads are running in Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia through early May. Here’s the first one:

Kate Sheppard covers energy and environmental politics for Mother Jones. She was previously the political reporter for Grist and a writing fellow at The American Prospect. You can find her work here and follow her on Twitter.

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  1. eleanordowling's avatar

    eleanordowling Posted 8:39 am
    16 Apr 2009

    This just makes sense! It'll help the economy and be a great step in the right direction for sustainable energy. I just wish it hadn't taken our country this long to get here...
  2. davefordemocracy Posted 12:21 pm
    16 Apr 2009

    A lot of little towns, especially in Pennsylvania, could use a guy like Mayor Fetterman. Not just steel towns, but coal towns too. Braddock's website became one of my favorites when I found it after seeing Fetterman on Colbert a few months back: http://www.15104.cc/Not only can this project help the climate problem and help get the economy on track, it can save towns and cities that are on the brink. And if it can be done in Braddock, it can be done in Detroit.

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